Gas generators and small engines have some serious problems looming with the influx of ethanol-blended fuel replacing pure gasoline in most gas stations. This influx is unavoidable at the pump - just try to find a gas pump that doesn't have a sticker saying "May Contain Up To 10% Ethanol". October 2010 should bring not only an increase in ethanol from 10 to 15%, but also a phaseout of the remaining exemptions for some kinds of gas stations. It will be ethanol for all.
Motorcycle Issues
Motorcycles are expensive pieces of equipment, many costing as much or more as a new car. Because they run on the same on-road fuels used to cars and trucks, motorcycles are prone to the same fuel-related problems as these cars and trucks. The ethanol fuels embedded in the marketplace give less mileage than conventional gasoline. Riders who store fuel for their cycles in gas cans have to deal with breakdown in fuel quality over time because of phase-seperation of the store ethanol-gasoline blends.
The good news for cycle owners is that most modern cycles resist ethanol-softening of seals and gaskets relatively well. But owners of cycles made 10 or more years ago do have reason to be concerned about this particular issue. And ethanol's corrosive nature still does a number on aluminum carburetor parts in bikes.
Ethanol's tendency to pull water from the air and its tendency to dissolve rubber and plastic parts pose the biggest problems for these kind of engines, especially
if you tend to leave the fuel in the machine for long periods of time (like with stand-alone emergency generators that run on gas). The longer the fuel sits, the more water collects, which causes phase seperation of the fuel and leaves you with a tank full of poor-octane gas with a layer of water-alcohol sitting on the bottom of the tank. That's not a good situation for a
generation machine that may have to be relied upon to provide emergency or support power at any time.
Consumers who use ethanol in small engines like lawn mowers, garden equipment and power equipment have been dismayed to find leaky fuel lines and damaged seals, even to the extent as to render their expensive equipment inoperable. Little did they suspect that the ethanol fuel they left in their machines would dissolve the rubber and plastic parts over time.
Not only this, but owners of small 2-stroke engines that mix fuel and oil are finding that ethanol has terrible effects on the performance of this mixture within their engines. The ethanol pulls water into the fuel, and the water dilutes the dissolved oil in the blend, ultimately preventing it from reaching all of the parts it needs to to provide adequate lubrication. Poor engine performance and damage are the inevitable result.
Those owners who are lucky enough to side-step the internal damage ethanol does are still very likely to see difficult starting, rough running and increased smoking from their engines, as those machine try to burn off the dissolved resins and hydrolytic breakdown products caused by the dissolved water in the fuel.
Owners of generators and small engines that run on gasoline and ethanol need peak performance and value from their fuels just as much as the owner of a large big-rig transport truck does. Preventive treatments for ethanol that remediate its damaging effects may be the best answer for many consumers.